Is Water Deal Cost Too High?
By RAAM WONG Journal Staff Writer
ALBUQUERQUE — The cost to settle a long-running lawsuit over water rights in the Pojoaque Valley may be too large for Congress to swallow.
That was the word Tuesday from attorneys in the decadesold Aamodt case, who said they were looking to reduce the cost of the $250 million settlement agreement to increase the odds that the federal government will pick up part of the tab.
Scott McElroy, an attorney for Namb Pueblo, said during a federal court hearing in Albuquerque that there was "considerable concern" in Congress about how to handle nine Indian water rights settlements from across the country currently in the pipeline. For its part, the Bush administration’s Interior Department has balked at paying the lion’s share of the agreement, as well as another settlement concerning Taos Pueblo.
The parties had hoped to prepare legislation that would help pay for the settlement for Congress to consider by the end of 2007. But the legislation will likely be delayed until early next year as the parties work to answer remaining issues raised by New Mexico’s congressional delegation, McElroy said.
The case is more than 40 years old and involves the river water claims of the Tesuque, Namb, San Ildefonso and Pojoaque pueblos, and other non-Indian water users.
The settlement gives the pueblos and Santa Fe County a "pool" of about 3,600 acre-feet of water to be managed through a regional water system. One acre-foot of water equals 325,851 gallons.
The resolution depends on construction of a water diversion project from the Rio Grande and a regional water system to serve the pueblos and non-Indian water users in northern Santa Fe County.
The agreement, as originally proposed, ran into opposition from domestic well owners in the Pojoaque area who would be required to surrender their water rights and join the regional system. The pueblos have agreed not to cut off non-Indian water users who have signed the agreement in times of water shortages.
Michael Nelson, a U.S. District Court judge who is overseeing the settlement talks, said the clock is ticking on finalizing the agreement.
"The window of opportunity to get the settlement passed is now," Nelson said. "If we don’t get this done, we have a serious problem."
That’s because legislation would need to be introduced in Congress early next year if it has any hope of being passed this session, parties in the case said. The state Legislature is also being asked to allocate funds for its part of the bargain.
The state also has two other water rights cases with pending resolutions. One involves Taos Pueblo, while the other concerns the Navajo Nation.
(c) 2007 Albuquerque Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.